New Spy Technology to Spawn Oil Revolution

The future of oil exploration lies in
new technology--from massive data-processing supercomputers
to 4D seismic to early-phase airborne spy technology that
can pinpoint prospective reservoirs.

Oil and gas is
getting bigger, deeper, faster and more efficient, with new
technology chipping away at “peak oil” concerns.
Hydraulic fracturing has caught mainstream attention, other
high-tech developments in exploration and discovery have
kept this ball rolling.

Oil majors are second only to the
US Defense Department in terms of the use of supercomputing
systems, which find sweet spots for drilling based on analog geology. These supercomputing
systems analyze vast amounts of seismic imaging data
collected by geologists using sound waves.

What's changed
most recently is the dimension: When the oil and gas
industry first caught on to seismic data collection for
exploration efforts, the capabilities were limited to
2-dimensional imaging. The next step was 3D, which gives a
much more accurate picture of what's down there.

The
latest is the 4th dimension: Time, which allows explorers
not only to determine the geological characteristics of a
potential play, but also tells them how a reservoir is
changing in real time. But all this is very expensive. And
oilmen are zealous cost-cutters.

The next step in
technology takes us off the ground and airborne—at a much
cheaper cost—according to Jen Alic, a global intelligence
and energy expert for OP Tactical.

The newest advancement
in oil exploration is an early-phase aerial technology that
can see what no other technology—including the latest 3D
seismic imagery—can see, allowing explorers to pinpoint
untapped reservoirs and unlock new profits, cheaper and
faster.

“We've watched supercomputing and seismic
improve for years. Our research into new airborne
reservoir-pinpointing technology tells us that this is the
next step in improving the bottom line in terms of
exploration,” Alic said.

“In particular, we see how
explorers could reduce expensive 3D seismic spending because
they would have a much smaller area pinpointed for
potential. Companies could save tens of millions of
dollars.”

The new technology, developed by Calgary's NXT Energy
Solutions, has the ability to pinpoint prospective oil
and gas reservoirs and to determine exactly what's still
there from a plane moving at 500 kilometers an hour at an
altitude of 3,000 meters.

The Stress Field Detection
(SFD) technology uses gravity to gather its oil and gas
intelligence—it can tell different frequencies in the
gravitational field deep underground.

Just like a stream
is deflected by a big rock, SFD detects gravity disturbances
due to subsurface stress and density variations. Porous rock
filled with fluids has a very different density than
surrounding solid rocks. Remember, gravity measurement is
based on the density of materials. SFD detects subtle
changes in earth's gravitational field.

According to its
developers, the SFD could save oil and gas companies
up to 90% of their exploration cost by reducing the
time spent searching for a reservoir and drilling into to it
to determine whether there's actually any oil and gas still
there.

“Because it's all done from the air, SFD doesn't
need on-the-ground permitting, and it covers vast acreage
very quickly. It tells explorers exactly where to do their
very expensive 3D seismic, greatly reducing the time and
cost of getting accurate drilling information,” NXT Energy
Solutions President and CEO George Liszicasz, told
Oilprice.com in a recent interview.

Mexico's state-owned
oil company Pemex has already put the new technology to the
test both onshore and offshore in the Gulf of Mexico, and
was a repeat customer in 2012. They co-authored with NXT a
white paper on their initial blind-test used of the survey
technology.

At first, management targeted the technology
to frontier areas where little seismic or well data existed.
As an example, Pacific Rubiales Energy is using SFD
technology in Colombia, where the terrain, and environmental
concerns, make it difficult to obtain permits and determine
where best to drill.

The technology was recently
contracted in the United States for unconventional plays as
well.

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